Fury over rental advertisement’s ‘scandalous’ request of tenant

An advertisement for a room in a Byron Shire home has copped hefty backlash after it made several bold demands of its future tenant.

The man behind an advertisement for a room in a rental house has been criticised for making a “baffling” request of his future housemate.

He put the “beautiful room” in his “flood free” home located in Mullumbimby, in the NSW in the Byron Shire, on Facebook Marketplace for $300 per week, not including bills.

Describing his preferred tenant, he said the existing two housemates – himself and one female – were looking for a male who worked full time to move in.

An additional detail however left dozens of community members perplexed, as it warned a certain category of workers not to bother applying.

“Male preferred, full time employment essential/must not be home-based,” part of the ad read.

Charging rent while seemingly dictating how much time the tenant spent in the home fast ruffled feathers among locals.

One questioned the legality of the demand in a post to Facebook this week, describing it “scandalous” the man had requested “someone not to work from home”.

They said it appeared the man wanted “maximum rent to be paid” while the tenant “must be out for 40 plus hours a week”.

Byron Shire locals took issue with this ad for the demands it made. Picture: Facebook

“Expect them to do maintenance etc on the few hours they are ‘allowed’ to be ‘home’. How is this even legal?” they wrote.

“Surely if someone is paying to live somewhere, it is their absolute right to be home as much or little as they choose, since it is their home?”

Dozens of others agreed it was a bit rich to expect the tenant to be predominantly away from the room they paid to rent.

“[The ad] kind of reads as the tenant must not be on the premises for 40 hours a week more or less? I mean many people are self employed and perfectly capable of peacefully working in and out of the house, without disrupting the home environment,” one person wrote in response.

“You can pay us the $300+ and never hardly be here‍️. I wonder if you’re even allowed to sleep there?” another said.

Someone else described it “pathetic” the man appeared to be making up his own rules.

“You should be allowed to be at home when you want,” they wrote.

Others agreed the man did himself no favours in his wording of the ad.

Locals had an issue with how the ad for the room was worded.

The tenant was initially asked to help with maintenance.

“So many demands and no welcoming positive invitation to future tenants,” one said, with someone else labelling it a “horrible ad”.

Critics were also upset the man said his future housemate would be required to help with the property’s maintenance and gardening.

The negative reaction however seemed enough to motivate him into changing the ad’s wording, with him later removing his request for the tenant not to work from home.

He also deleted the line saying they would be expected to carry out maintenance.

The man omitted his earlier requests after receiving backlash.

The man told news.com.au he was referencing people with home-based businesses that provided massages or meals when he asked for a tenant that didn’t work from home.

“We don’t (which is quite common in the area) want someone who has a business. for example massages or eyebrows or baking cakes all day working from our home,” he said.

While there has been some interest in the room, he said the right person had yet to apply.